Ipswich: Man had cannabis farm in flat

POLICE who raided a flat in the town centre found a cannabis farm which could have yielded drugs with a street value of more than £700,000, a court has heard

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In one room of the flat in Eagle Street, Ipswich officers found 32 healthy cannabis plants and in a nursery room they found plant boxes containing hundreds of small cannabis plants, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

Jessica Slaughter, prosecuting, said the potential maximum street value of the plants was £724,000.

The raid took place at 9am on August 23 last year and officers were let into the premises by 22-year-old Michael Walsh, who was living there at the time.

He told officers he was growing the crop for someone else and claimed his role had been confined to watering the plants.

Walsh, 22, admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis and was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years and placed under supervision for 18 months. He was also ordered to attend a Thinking Skills programme.

Sentencing him, Recorder Simon Farrell QC described the growing operation as a cottage industry but accepted that many of the plants would not have reached maturity.

Hugh Vass, for Walsh, said his client’s role was confined to watering the plants and his reward had been small amounts of cannabis for personal use.

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3 comments

the street value sounds quite high for found in a flat. maybe its a big flat !